Welcome Back Term 4 Welcome back to all students and families for the final term of the year. Term 4 is always a very busy time with normal school business, special end of year events and preparations for 2020 all running concurrently. Year 12 Graduation 2019 On Wednesday 25th September we farewelled the Year 12 class of 2019 at the graduation assembly in our school hall. The night was a great success with the hall full, to overflowing with students, families and a large representation of staff attending to see the group graduate. My special thanks to Brent Chapplelow and Kathy Kalachian, the year advisor team who have done such a great job supporting this group and especially for their organisation on the night. Year 12 are currently siting their HSC exams and despite the usual nerves and stresses this has been a very smooth exam period.

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Concord High School Keeping In Touch

Respectful Responsible Achieving Term 4 Week 3

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Principal’s Report Staffing It is with mixed emotions that I announce to our Concord community that Fiona Payne (Head Teacher Secondary Studies / Acting Deputy Principal) has been appointed to the substantive Deputy Principal position at Pennant Hills High School. Fiona has been part of the “fabric” of Concord High for many years, the last three of which she has served in an Acting Deputy Principal role. She has a broad range of outstanding skills that will greatly benefit the Pennant Hills community and she will be a sad loss for our school. Families, staff and students consistently hold Fiona in the highest regard. She has worked with, and supported many, of our students with highly complex needs over an extended period of time. I am sure you will all join me in congratulating Fiona and wishing her a very successful future. Uniform Shop From 30th September this year the school P&C has passed over the operation of the Uniform Shop to the school. This has been by agreement with both parties, with the primary aim of ensuring that our school community continues to be serviced with a quality product at a competitive price. May will continue to work as an employee of the school and the hours of operation, pricing and service levels will remain unchanged. In the coming weeks a purpose built portable building will be constructed on the school site that will house the Uniform Shop in a more spacious and appropriate space. For the time being it will be business as usual. Until Next Fortnight Victor Newby Principal

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Congratulations Nazir Hamoud NRL Youth Advocates speak in NSW Parliament

Five emerging leaders from the NRL Youth Advocate Program made their voices heard at NSW Parliament House on Monday during Children's Week Parliament.

Christina Tabone, Nazir Hammoud, Kathleen Sikuea, Sophie Akkari and Aris Georgoulopoulos were chosen to represent their electorates alongside 88 other high school students in years 9-11.

Each student gave a one-minute speech about an issue relevant to their area. The speeches were filmed and delivered to the young person's local MP.

NRL community officer Joe Galuvao said the event was perfect for the teenagers to showcase the skills and values taught in NRL Youth Advocate workshops.

"The main part of the Youth Advocate Program is giving opportunities for young people to lead and put the things they've learnt into action," said two-time NRL premiership winner Galuvao, who leads the program in NSW.

"They really loved the experience. Once they were there, they probably realised the significance of being there and speaking in front of Parliament.

"By attending this event, it gave them the confidence that being at events like this is important – especially when they want to drive change in their communities.

"For us, a big part of our Youth Advocate Program is for young people to identify issues that they see in the community and being able to be an advocate for change."

The NRL's youth quintet networked with expert partners like the Advocate for Young People and Children as well as students from all around the state.

"I'm very, very proud of the students," said Galuvao.

"Some of the messages I got back from them was they met kids from the country, from different walks of life and it gave them a really great appreciation."

Deputy Principal’s Report Jody Engisch, Craig Anderson & Danka Milinovic

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To become eligible for the NRL Youth Advocate Program, students must have participated in one of the game's other social impact initiatives – In League In Harmony, the Pacific Youth Summit, School 2 Work or Voice Against Violence.

Almost 60 Youth Advocates have been inducted this year and Galuvao is pleased with their progress.

"The program has a big emphasis on youth engagement and youth-led events. All our gala days that we hold throughout the year, all our young people run that," Galuvao said.

"They do all the emceeing and the refereeing – we want to provide opportunities for young people to put those skills and values into practice.

"We want to provide young people opportunities like they had on Monday where they can engage with partners, engage in opportunities NSW Parliament.

"For us at the Youth Advocate Program, we really want out young people to have a voice. The confidence and the platform to be able to hear from them."

The NRL Youth Advocate Program is funded by the NSW Government's Youth Opportunities Grant.

Many thanks to Mr White for assisting Nazir with his speech and Ms Valele and Mr Morrissey for their continued support of the program.

Congratulations to Guy Vaccaro.

In the midst of his HSC examinations Guy flew to Melbourne to compete in the Pan pacific Jiu-Jitsu 2019 championship where he won gold!! Congratulations Guy in juggling the double pressure of studying and training and winning at both!

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu emphasizes taking an opponent to the ground and utilizing ground fighting techniques and submission holds involving joint-locks and chokeholds also found in numerous other arts with or without ground fighting emphasis. The premise is that most of the advantage of a larger, stronger opponent comes from superior reach and more powerful strikes, both of which are somewhat negated when grappling on the ground.

Deputy Principal’s Report continued Jody Engisch, Craig Anderson & Danka Milinovic

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Deputy Principal’s Report continued Jody Engisch, Craig Anderson & Danka Milinovic

HSC Disability Provisions Any student who believes that they may qualify for Disability Provisions for the HSC in 2020 should make contact with Fiona Payne, Deputy Principal Learning and Wellbeing to obtain the application forms. Disability provisions in the HSC are practical arrangements designed to help students who couldn’t otherwise make a fair attempt to show what they know in an exam room. The provisions granted are solely determined by how the student’s exam performance is affected. Schools are responsible for determining and approving adjustments for all school-based assessment tasks. NESA determines disability provisions for the Higher School Certificate Examinations. All applications should be completed by the end of Term 1 2020.

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English News

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Science News

Empowering girls with STEM Our school has partnered with Coder Academy and Vodafone to empower our girls with the STEM skills they need to succeed. Girls who have been identified as having high potential and passion in STEM will have weekly coding workshops with Coder Academy to learn how to design voice apps for Amazon Alexa. The workshops will extend the girls’ skills in the design process they have already developed in their Technology Mandatory classes. The girls will also visit CISCO and Vodafone later in Term 4 to see what it is like to work in the STEM industry and to meet successful women in the STEM industry. This is one of the many initiatives our school has to ensure our girls can achieve their full potential.

Concord High School is currently evaluating its provision of gifted education. We currently have a Gifted and Talented Program where there is a dedicated class for students identified as gifted in every year group from Year 7-10 for some subjects. This is known as the ‘B’ class.

If your child is currently in the Gifted and Talented Program, please complete this short survey to let us know your perspectives as a parent/carer. The information you provide will be combined with teacher and student perspectives to help our school improve on how we implement gifted education.

The survey can be found at https://forms.gle/fhRXUEru5G8Vobxq9 and will close on Friday 15 November, 5pm.

Concord High School News

Tell us what you think …. about gifted education

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CAPA News

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IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER TERM 4

Week 4 Nov 4- Nov 8 Year 7 assessment week Week 5 Nov 11- Nov 15 Year 8 assessment week Nov 11 HSC written examinations concludes Nov 12 Year 12 Sign Out, 8.30 am – 10 am in the Concord High School

Hall. All fees must be paid and school resources returned prior to sign out

Formal, Dockside, Darling Harbour, 6 pm – 10.30 pm

Nov 15 Year 7 to Taronga Zoo Week 6 Nov 18-Nov 22 Year 9 assessment week Nov 22 Year 7 vaccinations part 2. Week 8 Dec 2- Dec 6 Year 10 work experience/community service week Dec 3 Year 6 Orientation day Week 9 Dec 9 - Dec 13 Year 7 swim program Dec 11 to Dec 13 Dec 11 Concord High School Ensembles Presentation Night 6-8pm Week 10 Dec 16 - Dec 20 HSC and ATARS released Dec 17 Dec 18 ATAR morning tea

Dec 18 Last day of school for all students

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VARIATIONS TO ROUTINE TERM 4 WEEK 4 4 November – 8 November, 2019 WEEK B

Monday 4 November o Year 7 Assesment week o Halogen Youth Leadership

Tuesday 5 November o Year 7 Assesment week o Year 11 Concordia mentor induction

Wednesday 6 November o Year 7 Assesment week o NRL Gala Day Refereeing o MADD Night

Thursday 7 November o Yr 7 Assesment week

Friday 8 November o Year 7 Assesment week o Youth Advocacy mentoring course o Yr 12 Science Extension workshop o Yr 12 Geography

Saturday 9 November

Upcoming Dates

A LOOK AHEAD TERM 4 WEEKS 5 & 6

A TERM 4 WEEK 5

Monday 11 November o Year 8

Assesment week

Tuesday 12 November o Year 8

Assesment week o A Smart Farmer

Incursion Yr 7 & Yr 8

o Sign Out Day o Year 12 Formal

Wednesday 13 November o Year 8 Assesment

week

Thursday 14 November o Year 8 Assesment

week

Friday 15 November o Year 8 Assesment

week o Extenson 2 Study

day o Yr 7 Taronga Zoo

Excursion

B TERM 4 WEEK 6

Monday 18 November o Year 9

Assesment week

Tuesday 19 November o Year 9

Assesment week

Wednesday 20 November o Year 9 Assesment

week

Thursday 21 November o Year 9 Assesment

week

Friday 22 November o Year 9 Assesment

week